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by AwkwardTiming



Series: One Step at a Time [3]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: M/M, and Hockey, explicit mentions of cooking, vague mentions of adult activities, valentine's day adjacent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-16
Updated: 2017-02-16
Packaged: 2018-09-24 20:04:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9783830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwkwardTiming/pseuds/AwkwardTiming
Summary: Bitty heads to Providence to spend Valentine's Day with Jack.part of a series - makes better sense with a vague idea of what happened in the first two parts, but I imagine you can figure it out without.





	

Bitty had been beyond excited when he realized that his strategy of no classes on Tuesdays meant that he could be in Providence for Valentine’s Day – especially when he realized that it lined up nicely with a free day between two home games for Jack. So, after his morning class on Monday, Bitty made his way to the train station. He’d asked Professor Atley to excuse him from class Monday afternoon and had similarly begged off his morning class on Wednesday.

He’d emailed George, too, and she’d been happy to arrange a ticket for him to the Monday night game. Jack wasn’t expecting him in town until Tuesday morning and Bitty was pleased to be able to surprise Jack. Jack, as it turned out, was really good at surprising Bitty in some of the sweetest ways.

For example, at Christmas, Jack had casually mentioned that he’d ordered a second dresser and moved his less-used clothing in his closet to the guest room so that Bitty had plenty of space to leave whatever he liked at Jack’s apartment when he visited.

A few days after their Sunday conversation, Jack had skyped Bitty again. He had gently reiterated his invitation to Bitty to stay with him for the duration of Bitty’s break. As it turned out, Lardo had offered a convenient, and somewhat plausible, excuse for Bitty to remain behind at Samwell despite the holiday. She was talking about a project she was hoping to finish for a show in January and needed extra hands – that the project was currently in Boston became slightly irrelevant once the idea took hold. So, once Jack had confirmed Bitty was welcome, Bitty had called his parents and asked if they would be ok with him not coming home on break after all.

Coach had been the one to smooth things over with Mama and a few days later Mama had called to let Bitty know that she and Coach were going to head out and see the Rose Bowl – one of Coach’s former players was on one of the teams and his parents couldn’t make it, so the player had asked if Coach might be able to.

And aside from a couple of awkward minutes where Mama all but asked if he was dating Lardo and if that’s why he was staying behind to help her, things had resolved better than Bitty had expected.

Christmas morning, Bitty had called his parents. They were home for the holiday itself with tickets to California the next morning.

“Merry Christmas!” came his mother’s cheerful voice across the line.

“Merry Christmas, Mama,” Bitty returned.

“Dicky! Hold on, sugar. Let me grab Coach.”

Bitty heard his mother shout for his father and picked at his thumbnail a bit while he waited.

“Merry Christmas,” his father said when he picked up what Bitty suspected was the phone in the living room.

“Merry Christmas, Coach,” Bitty said. “Are y’all on your way to church soon?”

“Sure are. Ruthie’s bringing Moomaw. She was real sorry to hear you were staying up North for the holidays this year,” Mama replied

“Aw, yeah. I miss y’all, but this was probably for the best this year.”

“You’re in Providence right now, right?” Coach asked.

Bitty nodded, “Yup. I’ll head up to Buffalo in a couple days. Ransom will be down a couple days after that and Holster’s sister – I hear she’s the goalie for her team – is going to help us practice a couple new plays and then I’ll head back to Samwell to meet up with Lardo.” The last wasn’t accurate – he’d actually be heading back to Providence and Jack and Lardo and Shitty would join them for New Years. Coach made a noise Bitty couldn’t quite interpret, so he brushed it off. Christmas was hardly the time to pick a fight anyway. “Did y’all get the package I sent?”

“We did – Dicky what on earth did you send?” Mama asked.

“Y’all haven’t opened it?”

“You know we don’t open gifts until after the service. Moomaw’d have a fit. Imagine. Now you got our package, right? Before you left Samwell? Oh – There’s Hazel Grace heading out with her family. We should probably get a move on, Dicky honey. I’m glad you called us early though!”

“Merry Christmas, again, Mama, Daddy,” Bitty said.

“You too, son,” and “Merry Christmas, sugar,” came his parents’ replies.

Bitty ended the call and felt something uncurl a bit in his chest. He did miss being home, a bit, but mostly he was glad the call was out of the way and he could focus on enjoying the holiday with Jack – their first holiday together. The thought made Bitty want to hug himself a bit.

Bob and Alicia had come down and spent the day with Jack and Bitty before heading to Boston to visit friends. They had returned to Providence after Bitty left for Buffalo and were in Montreal before he returned to Providence and Jack. Bob and Bitty had cooked together a bit, much to Jack and Alicia’s amusement. Bob had mentioned teaching Bitty to make one of his mother’s dishes when Bitty visited Montreal over the summer. Bitty had looked to Jack, but Jack had seemed intent on whatever his mother was saying – or would have seemed intent if not for the vivid flush on his cheeks and Alicia’s quiet snort of laughter when she realised why.

Bitty checked the time as the train pulled into the station. If he was right, he should make it to Jack’s apartment before Jack took his pregame nap. If he was lucky, he’d get to take part in the nap – but regardless, he’d be able to make Jack’s pregame PBJ. The thought made him smile.

Bitty sent Jack a quick text as he got close.

EB: Headed home?

JZ: Yes. Almost there, actually. Ready for a nap.

EB: Mind waiting in the lobby for me?

JZ: ? I thought you were coming in in the morning.

EB: Surprise! I’m about 5 minutes away.

Jack didn’t reply after that, but he was waiting in the lobby of his building when Bitty walked in. Despite his casual, “Hey, Bittle,” when Bitty walked in, Jack’s eyes were warm and pleased at the sight of his boyfriend.

“Hi, Jack,” Bitty replied as they made their way toward the bank of elevators. Their hands brushed as they stood side by side in the elevator, quiet. A side glance at Jack, though, told Bitty that Jack had a small smile on his face the entire time.

Once safely inside Jack’s apartment, Jack had pulled Bitty into a tight hug. “How are you here? Don’t you have class?”

“I’m skipping.”

“Bittle,” Jack said pulling back.

“It’s professor Atley. I asked if I could and she said it was fine. Today’s actually something we kind of covered in the class of hers that you and I took.”

Jack searched Bitty’s face, then smiled again. “Do you want to come to the game tonight?”

“I do!” Bitty said. “I hope you don’t mind, but I actually emailed George once I figured out I could make it and she’s already set aside a ticket for me.”

Jack just hugged Bitty tight again, tucking his face against Bitty’s neck with a laugh. He pulled away enough to kiss Bitty, then, “Lunch?”

“You weren’t just going to have a protein shake?” Bitty chirped.

“I was,” Jack said, honestly, “But I have a baked chicken in the fridge and salad.” He shrugged, “But if you’re not hungry, I can drink my shake and we can go take a nap – if you want to nap with me.”

“Let’s have lunch – and of course I want to nap with you,” Bitty stepped back and set his bag down.

They ate a quick lunch. Jack was quiet, but Bitty was well-used to the way Jack would run through plays in his head before a game. Bitty cleaned up after, then joined Jack in his room as Jack finished some light stretches. Jack set his alarm and they curled up together. Bitty hadn’t thought he was particularly tired, but it was Jack’s alarm that woke him an hour and a half later.

Jack had kissed him quickly before rolling out of bed to take a quick shower and dress for the game. Bitty made his way back to Jack’s kitchen and a short time later, Jack was out the door with his sandwich and Bitty made his way back to Jack’s room to take a quick shower himself and change for the game. 

It was a tight game, with the Falconers’ falling in overtime, but Jack had scored and the team had played a tight game. Jack texted Bitty to wait him and they rode home together.

The next morning they made breakfast together before Jack headed to practice. Bitty did his homework while Jack was gone – and made a pie. When Jack texted that he was on his way back, Bitty put together a quick lunch. They had talked through every permutation of plans for Valentine’s Day, ultimately deciding that they’d rather have a nice dinner at home where they wouldn’t have to worry about people seeing them together. The plan was for them to cook together a little later on and if Bitty had more than pie on his mind for dessert, well, who could blame him.

They had agreed no presents. Jack had been the one advocating for a small gift for Bitty, but Bitty had been adamant – what was little to Jack might be quite big to Bitty and he’d rather not have the added stress. He knew Jack wanted to do something, but Bitty hoped that Jack would keep it…reasonable.

And, ok, yes, Bitty had found a signed copy of a book Jack had mentioned really enjoying and had every intention of giving it to Jack before he headed back to campus.

After dinner and pie and dessert, as they lay in bed together, Jack said, “I love having you home, you know that, right?”

Bitty leaned in and pressed a kiss to the nearest bit of Jack’s skin he could before asking the question that had been tickling the back of his mind for a while, “Do you – you sort of referred to your apartment as my home. Do you really think of it as my home?”

“Euh. Sort of. I mean, yes.”

“Even though I don’t live there?”

“You could,” Jack replied without hesitation. “If you wanted, you could absolutely live with me.” There was a pause before Jack said, apropos of nothing, “I have a present for you. Well, sort of a present for you.” He untangled himself and went to his dresser, pulling out a small box from his drawer.

Bitty took it, but set it aside for a moment saying, “I have something for you, too. Just a minute.” He quickly retrieved the book – festively wrapped – and handed it to Jack before taking the box back up.

Bitty watched out of the corner of his eye while Jack carefully unwrapped the book, then lifted the lid. A key was tucked inside. “Jack?”

Jack was watching him. “I thought it would be nice if you could come and go when you wanted. There’s an elevator tag in there, too. I know you don’t live here, but you could. When I think of home, I think of here, but I think of here with you. It feels more like home when you are here.  You make me feel home. I want you to feel at home here, too.”

Bitty surged up, kissing Jack fiercely and he felt Jack smile briefly against his lips.

On his way back to Samwell, Bitty thought about home. His parents’ house still came to mind, but it was feeling less like home. There was a warm feeling attached but almost distantly. Home was now also the kitchen at the house, cuddling with Jack on his couch in Providence. Home was the ice with his team.

And he was beginning to suspect that home might really be wherever Jack was. That thought alone kept him warm the entire way back to Samwell.

**Author's Note:**

> For those of you playing along at home: I have not abandoned the Kent/Bitty story - it just got much longer than I thought it would and I'm short on time to clean it up. But. I will. I promise.
> 
> I'm not sure what else will happen in this particular AU, but this is probably not the last time I will revisit it. *shrugs*
> 
> Thank you, as always, for reading. I can be found on tumblr (awkwardtiming) or twitter (@wkwardtiming) or gmail (awkwardtiming@gmail.com) if you feel like interacting outside of the comments section - about anything, really.
> 
> Have a lovely day!


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